Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

• -φῐν ‎(-phin) with movable nu, before a vowel

Suffix

-φι • ‎(-phi) ‎(-φῐ) (Epic)

1. Creates a transnumeral case-form used with several different meanings:
   1. instrumental
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 9.407–408

        τοὺς δ' αὖτ' ἐξ ἄντρου προσέφη κρατερὸς Πολύφημος·
        ὦ φίλοι, Οὖτίς με κτείνει δόλῳ οὐδὲ βίηφιν.

        Mighty Polyphemus addressed [the other Cyclopes] back out of his cave:
        "Friends, No One [i.e., Odysseus] is killing me by neither cunning nor force."

      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 4.704–705

        τὼ δέ οἱ ὄσσε / δακρυόφιν πλῆσθεν

        [Penelope]'s two eyes filled with tears

   2. locative
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 9.237–239

        αὐτὰρ ὅ γ' εἰς εὐρὺ σπέος ἤλασε πίονα μῆλα,
        πάντα μάλ', ὅσσ' ἤμελγε, τὰ δ' ἄρσενα λεῖπε θύρηφιν,
        ἀρνειούς τε τράγους τε, βαθείης ἔντοθεν αὐλῆς.

        And [Polyphemus] drove into the wide cave his fat sheep,
        all of them that he would milk, but left the males at the door, the rams and billy-goats, inside the deep courtyard.

   3. ablative, often with the prepositions ἐκ ‎(ek) and ἀπό ‎(apó)
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 2.1–3

        ὤρνυτ' ἄρ' ἐξ εὐνῆφιν Ὀδυσσῆος φίλος υἱός

        Odysseus's son awoke and got out of bed

   4. (rare) genitive
   5. (rare) dative
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 3.110

        Πάτροκλος, θεόφιν μήστωρ ἀτάλαντος

        Patroclus, a counselor equal to the gods

References

• Smyth, Herbert Weir (1920), “Part II: Inflection”, in A Greek grammar for colleges, Cambridge: American Book Company, § 280
• William Bedell Stanford (1959) [1947]. "Introduction, Grammatical Introduction". Homer: Odyssey I-XII 1 (2nd ed.). Macmillan Education Ltd. p. lx.